Unit Conversions
Metric Prefixes
A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure e.g. gram (mass/weight), Watt (power) etc. to indicate multiples or fractions of base units. These prefixes are powers to the base 10 e.g. 101 or 102 and they are used to express very large or very small numbers as multiples of powers of 10. Below is the table of such prefixes that we use in our daily life.
| Common Metric Prefixes | |||
| Name | Symbol | Factor | Power |
| exa | E | 1000000000000000000 | 1018 |
| peta | P | 1000000000000000 | 1015 |
| tera | T | 1000000000000 | 1012 |
| giga | G | 1000000000 | 109 |
| mega | M | 1000000 | 106 |
| kilo | k | 1000 | 103 |
| hecto | h | 100 | 102 |
| deca | da | 10 | 101 |
| - | - | 1 | 100 |
| deci | d | 0.1 | 10-1 |
| centi | c | 0.01 | 10-2 |
| milli | m | 0.001 | 10-3 |
| micro | μ | 0.000001 | 10-6 |
| nano | n | 0.000000001 | 10-9 |
| pico | p | 0.000000000001 | 10-12 |
| femto | f | 0.000000000000001 | 10-15 |
| atto | a | 0.000000000000000001 | 10-18 |
Unit systems are used globally for science, engineering, medical and commerce etc. and they are extremely important as the international trade depends on agreed-upon measurement systems. Nowadays three system of Units measurements are used i.e. International System of Units (SI), United States Customary Units, and Imperial Units. Currently the global standard of measurement is the International System of Units (SI) but still some countries like UK and US use their own customary measurement units. The intent of this website to provide easy and user friendly tools for the units conversions and other calculators that are used in daily life.
by Wasim Khan and it was last modified on
